A Frequency Dictionary of Mandarin Chinese by Richard Xiao

Author:Richard Xiao
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781134049875
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

27. Commonly used words in the spoken register

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Headword POS Gloss Frequency rank

呃 part [particle used for a pause or to express wonder or admiration] er, oh 1967

嗯 interj [interjection used for questioning, surprise, disapproval, or agreement] well, eh, hey, m-hm, uh-huh 820

哎 interj [interjection expressing surprise, disapproval, reminder, etc.] 946

比如说 idiom for example, say 3081

里边 loc inside, within 3496

吶 part [sentence final particle, especially following words ending with the consonant n] 3690

哎呀 interj [interjection expressing wonder, shock or complaint] ah, my god, damn 3869

里头 loc inside 3835

哈 ono [usually reduplicated to indicate the sound of laughing] 4338

哈 interj [interjection expressing satisfaction] ha 3495

嘿 interj hey, why 3595

啊 part [modal particle showing affirmation, approval or consent] 222

会儿 time [preceded by the demonstrative pronoun 这 or 那] (at this or that) moment 4394

当中 place in the middle or centre; among 1618

甭 adv don’t, needn’t 4795

哎哟 interj [particle expressing astonishment or pain] hey, oh, ouch 4848

听众 n audience 3571

啦 part [sentence final particle combining 了 and 啊] 378

哪 part [sentence final particle similar to 阿，following words ending with the consonant n] 1529

哇 part [sentence final particle replacing 啊 where the preceding word ends with the vowel u or ao] 2710

头儿 n head, chief, superior 4541

哼 interj [interjection expressing disapproval] humph 2635

嗅 interj [interjection expressing mental realisation] oh 2855

呀 ono [the sound of a creak] 3135

啊 interj [interjection expressing surprise, admiration, etc.] oh 341

对 adj right, correct; opposite (in direction) 438

这边 pron this side, this way, over here 2582

嘿嘿 ono [sound of laughing] 4392

来讲 aux [equivalent of 来调 from one’s viewpoint 4300

叫做 v be called 2079

外边 loc outside 4742

反正 adv anyway 1084

呗 part [sentence final particle indicating something obvious or expressing resignation] 4071

那儿 pron there 987

儿 suf [nonsyllabic suffix for retroflection, especially in the Beijing dialect] 182

嘛 part [sentence final modal particle indicating that something is obvious or expressing a hope, advice, etc.] 531

哦 interj [interjection expressing realisation] ah 1675

呀 part [sentence final particle] 293

干吗 pron why, what to do; whatever for 3509

呃 part [particle used for a pause or to express wonder or admiration] er, oh 1967

嗯 interj [interjection used for questioning, surprise, disapproval, or agreement] well, eh, hey, m-hm, uh-huh 820

Comments:

For each of the four registers:

1

Remove all items with a dispersion index equal to or greater than 0.5;

2

First sort by normalised frequency of the register under consideration;

3

Compute the ratio of the register with the other three (normalised frequency of register / (sum of the normalised frequencies of the other three registers);

4

Cut off where there is a significant drop in the ratio computed in (2);

5

Because of the topics covered in the public lectures and debates in the spoken registers , some words which may not be typically spoken appear on the list, which are removed by hand, e.g. 火山 “volcano” (4935) , 友 “friend” (2983), 辩 “argue, debate” (1798), 遗产 “heritage, inheritance, legacy” (3156), 焦点 “focus” (2699), and 皇帝 “emperor” (1546);

5

The list is arranged by statistical salience instead of frequency ranks.

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